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Lorica of Saint Patrick I arise today |
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I summon today all these powers between me and evil, |
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Posted on 03/15/2007 5:05:35 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Saint Patrick's Day has become a day of the color green and binge-drinking. It hasn't always been a day of drunken stupors and reckless partying. There's a
proud Irish heritage to the history of the holiday.
Born in the late fourth century, Saint Patrick is known for the popularizing of Christianity and converting or driving out pagans. He was not the first to introduce Christianity to Ireland, however. Palladius was the first bishop to the Irish believers in Christ, according to history.com.
The myth surrounding St. Patrick's fame runs along the lines of his banishing of snakes from the island nation. However, snakes have never called the emerald isle home. It is an often-misunderstood metaphor for the Irish patron saint driving out the pagans. Serpent symbols were often worshipped by pagans, such as the Druids at Tara, who St. Patrick is said to have baptized, according to history.com. Much of what is known of St. Patrick is from oral history and the Irish saint's two works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Epistola, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians, according to st-patricks-day.com.
The green holiday is global these days. North America has the biggest celebrations but Australia, Japan, Singapore and Russia celebrate St. Patrick's Day as well. but today's college students know what the holiday has come to mean to young Americans: partying.Greg Sarvas, a transfer student from the University of Illinois, where St. Patrick's Day is an unofficial campus party, recalls his holiday experience two years ago.
"My roommates woke me up at 6 a.m. with a beer in hand," said
Sarvas, a 21-year-old engineering major. "We made green pancakes and watched Boondock Saints. We hit up the bar. Then, in class, I'd say at least 25 percent of the class was hammered," Sarvas said. "Then, it was back to the bar in between classes and we finished the night strong."
"I was going to take off work and start at Malarkey's," said Lauren Clark, a 21-year-old liberal studies major. "But I can't, so now I'm heading to the bar straight after work."
Some agree but others don't particularly like the revelry.
"I'm so sick of people who aren't Irish trying to use St. Patrick's Day as an excuse to drink," said Tina Ganjifard, a 21-year-old political science major. Ganjifard said that people are constantly associating themselves with holidays in the name of partying.
"It's like Persian New Year when everybody pretends they're Persian and tries to claim the cash that's due to the Persians who believe the new year means a joyous year," Ganjifard said.
Some of the drinkers acknowledge the heritage of the holiday.
"I've done the traditional St. Patrick's Day meal [corn beef and cabbage], which most don't do. And we say an Irish prayer," Clark said. "I think it's the best holiday but I don't know why," Clark added.
"Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day," Sarvas said with a grin.
Patrick: The Good, the Bad, and the Misinformed
Orthodox Feast of +Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland
Orthodox Feast of St Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland, March 17
To Truly Honor Saint Patrick, Bishop and Confessor
Apostle to the Irish: The Real Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick [Apostle of Ireland]
Was St. Patrick Catholic?....Of Course!! [Happy St. Pat's Day]
The Confession Of Saint Patrick [IN HIS OWN WORDS] -- (Read Only)
Generally I spell it correctly, but not always.
Congratulations on being Irish. Part Irish here too!
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Lorica of Saint Patrick I arise today |
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I summon today all these powers between me and evil, |
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Thank you. And Congratulations to you, too. I admire the Irish for their poetry and their love of family and their crystal.
But I've never understood how a country surrounded by water (and thus lots of fish) could suffer a famine when the potato crop is off.
Perplexing. 8~)
Well, Dr. Eckleburg, that's because the potato failure wasn't the reason people starved.
oh that's easy....England hoarded all their other produce, they had taken off with livestock years before that. Food was literally rotting on the docks waiting to be shipped to England. All that we were left to subsist on were potatoes.
I lost too many family members in the Potato Famine.
Now the real deal is when you hear this set to the music of C.V. Stanford. Highlight of every St. Patrick's day for me.
bttt
"The Great Famine or the Great Hunger (Irish: An Gorta Mór or An Drochshaol) is the name given to the famine in Ireland between 1845 and 1849. The Famine was due to the appearance of "the (potato) Blight" (also known as phytophthora)– the oomycete that almost instantly destroyed the primary food source for the majority of the island's population. The immediate after-effects of The Famine continued until 1851. Much is unrecorded, and various estimates suggest that between 500,000 and more than one million people died in the three years from 1846 to 1849 as a result of hunger or disease. About 12% of the population. Some two million refugees are attributed to the Great Hunger (estimates vary), and much the same number of people emigrated to Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Ladies..... ;-)
that would be the one....it was so deadly due to the lack of any other available food.
This last link properly points out that it is erroneous to refer to it as a famine, since only the potato crop failed.
This would be why Prime Minister Tony Blair apologized for Britain's role in the Irish Potato Famine, in 1997.
Oh the praties they grow small, over here
Oh the praties they grow small
And way up in Donegal
We eat them skins and all, over here, over here
We eat them skins and all, over here.
Oh I wish that we were geese, night and morn,
Oh I wish that we were geese
Till the hour of our release
When we'd live and die in peace, stuffing corn, stuffing corn
When we' d live and die in peace, stuffing corn.
Oh, they'll grind us into dust, over here
Oh, they'll grind us into dust,
But the Lord in whom we trust
Will return us crumb for crust, over here, over here
Will return us crumb for crust, over here.
My both parents were born in Ireland and my dad's name was Patrick. And my parents didn't drink! How did that
happen? LOL
Grew up on Irish music - and it is the BEST!
Lighten up, Tina.
Besides, you're 21. You've barely had time to become sick of anything.
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